When the summer hits, Porn Valley production houses could almost be heard giving a collective sigh.
It’s the annual event that comes just as surely as the dry heat and blanket of smog that covers the Valley, aptly named by industry members as the "summer slowdown."
But this year, there was something different in the air. The stale stench of dusty DVD boxes stacking in warehouses and of retailers trying to move product to an unwilling public.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Dion Giarrusso, owner of Combat Zone and one of the founders of Red Light District.
“We’ve had to slow down production because there’s just too much product out there and not enough demand for new titles.”
Releasing just two titles a month instead of its usual four this summer, Combat Zone is adjusting to what has been perhaps the worst summer in years for porn producers.
“Maybe it's because gas is at more than $3 a gallon and people don’t have enough money to spend on porn, I don’t know, but it seems like that’s a big part of what’s happening.”
Red Light owner David Joseph echoed Giarrusso as his own company felt the pressure of a saturated market and the departure of some of its veteran directors.
“We saw that it was going to be a difficult year so we had a production schedule that reflected that so we just basically stuck to our schedule all year,” he said.
As a result Red Light continues to release two movies per week, like its sister label, Platinum X.
“We used to do a lot more last year, but we realized early on that you can’t keep releasing a lot of titles in a market like this,” he added.
Even as some production houses deal with reduced production schedules, powerhouse studio Vivid Entertainment is seemingly untouched by the down market as it continues with a steady pace of releases this summer.
“We’re not slowing down,” said Marci Hirsch, Vivid’s vice president of production.
“We’ve shot 15 movies from the beginning of June to the end of August and part of the reason we haven’t slowed down is because DVD sales account for 40 percent of our business.
With its broadcast deals, video-on-demand, online video and its burn-to-DVD services, Vivid has arguably become the model for other studios to emulate.
“The summer seemed to be pretty busy for us so we didn’t really feel this slowdown.”
But others weren’t as lucky.
Hustler Video saw the summer downturn as yet another example of the glut of videos from the growing number of new studios.
“We’ve gone from five to six releases a week to two this summer,” said David Diamond, Hustler's national sales manager.
“We cut down production, but it was something we planned earlier this year. We recognized that you’re killing your titles by having so much product out there.”
Although no statistics on the overall industry drop are available, he’s sure they likely echo the drop in CD sales nationwide of about 7 percent for the year.
“I think adult and the record industry are getting impacted the same way,” he said.
But Wicked Pictures contract director Michael Raven says his company is thriving as much as ever.
“We haven’t really seen that slowdown, though some of the guys in my crew have. It’s been tough on them,” he said.
“With Wicked it helps that you have name advantage and the fact that we have these very popular girls traveling across the country and getting themselves out there with these great titles. That makes a difference.”
Taking advantage of the mega-hit Curse Eternal, and the summer hit The Visitors, Wicked is riding the wave of success this summer with much buzz over its upcoming Manhunter, starring its contract stars Kirsten Price, Jessica Drake and Carmen Hart.
Pink Visual International Sales Manager Michael Glaser says his company has also had a good summer solidifying its niche in the reality porn market.
“I hear rumblings and rumors from a lot of Distributors that they have never experienced such a slowdown as this summer, that the industry is saturated and so many titles are streeting at once that it's forcing the buyers to be very choosy with the product they carry,” Glaser said.
“However, I've been fortunate to see the opposite while working at Pink Visual. Our sales numbers are booming, and our brand is getting tremendous recognition. We are consistently putting out new and exciting 'reality porn’ that the public craves.”
But for performers like Brooke Haven, the slowdown is all too real.
“It’s been a little slower than usual for me and a lot of my friends,” she said.
“I hate not working so I started dancing this summer and it’s been really fun to get out there. Though I prefer being in front of the camera.”
